Archive for November, 2013

I managed to squeeze in a little more time on the new gouache painting. I still plan to lighten up the background, and the figures need some cleaning up.

One thing I noticed about this Wet Media film surface that I’m painting on is that the glossy shine can be seen contrasting with the matte painted areas when any unpainted spots show through (see image below.) To remedy this I’ve discovered that I can paint a thin layer of watercolor medium on the surface to keep the color showing through from the back, but it eliminates the glossy surface of the film. Next time I will plan to wipe on a thin layer over the whole thing before I start painting to avoid the touch-up time.

Okay, in case you were wondering, I’m still working on the new painting, but it’s been slow going. I’ve wiped it down twice, not liking where it was headed. I guess I’ve been away from the paints too long, so it’s been fighting back. That is another example, however, of how well this film surface is for making corrections. Just hit an area with a wet towel and wipe away your troubles without damaging the surface.

The background will likely brighten up some, but I’ll wait until I get the rest of the figures finished up.

I’m going to interrupt the progress on the new painting to post something I just heard about. Golden Paints has recently come out with a new line of paints called High Flow Acrylics, and these can be used to refill ink markers.

These paints will also work well with dip pens, or so they claim. I haven’t tested them out yet, but will keep an eye out for them on my next art store trip.

I decided to do a few color tests to prepare for the new painting I’ve started, and these were the two I liked the most. The red background was my original idea, but I now think I like the violet one better, so that’s the way I’m headed. We’ll see how it turns out.

After being away from the paints for awhile, I think it’s time to get back to the fun. This is based on an old photo reference I dug up of two skaters dancing the tango. The painting will be in gouache on the Grafix Wet Media surface I was experimenting on recently.

The goal of this project is to use to my advantage the transparency of the Wet Media by painting an undertone ink color on the back, and gouache on the front. The ink is a Dr. Martin’s brown which is shellac based, and wouldn’t work that well with gouache directly, since it’s water-resistant. However, in this case it’s painted on the back of the Wet Media, so that won’t matter. The transparency also lets me easily see the sketch underneath without having to redraw it.

I made a simple pencil sketch on scratch paper of the two figures to fit a 12 inch area, and taped this onto a sheet of illustration board. Next I brushed the ink onto the film, waited a few minutes for the ink to dry, flipped the film over, and taped it on top of the drawing. It’s now ready for the next step of painting.